Barring 1977 this seat has been a Congress citadel, before the BJP
moved in in 1991. What is interesting is that the 1957 election were
won for it by Manbendra Shah, who performed a hat-trick till 1967.
He lost the 1971 election which he contested as an Independent,
and sort of faded out. He bounced back in 1991, winning it for the
BJP. Not only that, he retained the seat in 1996. N D Tiwari, who
wields considerable influence in the region, could not work his
magic, the Congress-T's Nav Prabhat coming second. His margin of
defeat: 45,000 votes.